Advertising to Attract Buyers
To get the best price for your home, you want to attract interest from as
wide a pool of potential buyers as possible. Remember that not everyone
shops the same way, some prefer to read the local paper, some favor
bargain or "throwaway" papers or real estate magazines, some drive around
looking at yard signs in neighborhoods that interest them while still
others prefer to do their research from the comfort of their own homes on
the internet.
Whichever you personally prefer, you need to remember to cover all your
bases. Learn from the professionals, real estate agents who sell homes
for a living. There are three things the agent will always do in their
quest to sell the home:
- Place a yard sign.
These really do draw interest. People who already
live in the neighborhood and like the area are your most fertile pool of
potential customers and leads. They may be looking for a home for a
friend or relative wanting to move into the area. Or, they may be wanting
to move up or would like to dabble in the rentals business with a property
close to home. Be sure to not miss this valuable market, the
professionals never do.
This valuable resource is also one of your best deals, with simple,
effective yard signs available from local building supply stores for just
a few dollars.
- Local Newspaper Listings.
By the same token, while people in your
neighborhood are your best prospects, there are relatively few of
them. People in the same town or news area are your next best
prospect. Here you will expect to spend some money. Don't overdo it, but
a simple, attractive classified or listing for your open house should
definitely appear here.
Check out the possibility of savings using lower priced alternative or
giveaway newspapers. I personally sold a home that the real estate agent
had been unable to find a buyer for through an eight dollar ad in "The
Thrifty Nickel". Don't overlook these as a supplement.
- Wider Area Listings.
The last method every successful real estate agent will use is the
Multiple Listing Service, a method of attracting interest from the wider
pool of buyers outside the immediate area. While the MLS is expensive and
may not available to the FSBO seller, the internet provides an excellent
alternative. Recent statistics show that between 60% and 70% of home
purchasers resaerch their purchase over the internet before buying.
While there are many internet sites to choose from, with a wide range of
prices and services, some constants do stand out.
- Local and Individual Web Sites are widely available, at prices ranging from free to
hundreds of dollars. While many are nicely done, few have the exposure and traffic of
the larger websites and you will find quite a few that attract hardly any buyers of viewers
at all. Consider closely the traffic and exposure before spending money or even time
on sites of this type, to find those who do put in the resources and local advertising to
build interest and be worth your while.
Some of these pay sites give you practically no traffic for your money, beware of those who will
not provide you traffic statistics, counters on your personal page or who have only a handful of
current listings, there's probably a good reason for that.
- Large national classifieds sites such as Yahoo and Excite offer free advertising to a wide range
of people. The disadvantage to the better of these is that your ad may be lost in the crowd with
thousands of listings, many of them placed and refreshed by professionals whose ads may dominate
the field. Definitely worth using, though, considering the price is usually free, your cost is
just your time and effort to post.
- Free National sites combine the advantages of the large national classifieds with the advantage
of the local sites. The best offer personal listing pages, free photos and save you valuable time
by handling the posting of your ad on other sites for you automatically.
In our view, AllTheListings.com
is the best of these, offering all of the above and more. Membership in the For Sale By Owner Internet
Network allows your ad to be automatically and instantly found on all of the websites in this network, which
includes FSBOi.net, ownerslist.com and USHouseFinders.com as well. Yahoo.com, the world's most popular
website, also carries your ad automatically and at no cost to you. Your ad can be changed, updated
or deleted at any time and standard listings are always free. Our extensive advertising and promotion
provides a steady stream of buyers to the site and our easy to use search engine makes it easy for them
to find your property.
Your internet advertising should always have a personal listing page with photos available.
This page should have an individual address to allow you to reference it in advertising and to
direct potential buyers to it. When people call and ask for more information and photos, tell
them about your web page. Better yet, print it in your advertising and flyers, so they can check
it themselves at their convenience 24 hours a day. Try something like "See details and photos at www.allthelistings.com/home/details/1234"
Whatever you choose, be sure to use all three types of exposure, neighborhood with the sign, local
area with the newspaper ad and nationwide with internet advertising to maximize your opportunity
to find that one buyer you are looking for!
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